Here is a SOLO-worthy video of the conclusion of Mahler's Symphony #2 "Resurrection".

This is a really astonishing video of Herbert von Karajan (with what I assume is the Berlin Philharmonic in the early 1960s) conducting Beethoven's 5th.

Here is a good example of how these people should be treated when they come to America.

Just a reminder -- the "personal photo" rule is now in effect. If the staff notices non new users without a photo we will place the user on moderation until they do. If you have forgotten to do this and we happen to moderate your account don't worry too much about it. You will be allowed back on immediately once you post a photo.

Lindsay and I had a short debate last night and decided that some kind of action is necessary given a recent incident involving “Jeremy LeRay” a phony poster, using a fake name and an unidentifiable baby photo.  The user, a well known troll who has done things like this in the past started launching personal attacks against the reputations of other users.

I have a lot of quirky hobbies and interests. By far the most expensive among them is my audiophile habit (fetish). As I write this I suspect I will start to sound like the stalker guy that showed up on the romance thread when I talk about what attracts me to each of my system components. Luckily for others my own obsession only involves obscure pieces of electronic equipment

Well, you know I had to see this one since I used to watch Rocky movies as a kid. I didn't expect much from "Rocky 6", but I must say that as I watched this movie I was more then surprised. I was amazed. Rocky might not be as eloquent as Rearden, Francisco or Roark, but his monologues in this movie have a similar effect.

This morning I read an excellent essay by a gentleman named Paul Graham, which really hit home.

This one is great. I caught word of this over on Oliving just now and had to look for myself. It is just too great not to share. This is the Supreme Leader (the ruler of Iran) Ayatollah Ali Khameini who is here dispensing his amazing wisdom and scholarship to his subjects.

I have a few moments, and I would like to complete my survey of what I believe to be “the great symphonies” here on SOLO. In my survey of the Bruckner symphonies I promised that Mahler would be next. Well I recently purchased a couple of Mahler CDs and I am still contemplating whether one of those ought to be included in my list.

In any case, instead of Mahler I will move on to one of Mahler's great contemporaries, the Finnish master Jean Sibelius.

Hey guys.

I've decided to step down from my position as Executive Director at SOLO at the end of August. I have decided this week to enroll in a very time consuming academic schedule and unfortunately SOLO won't be high enough on my value scale for me to justify keeping the job. Under the right leadership I think SOLO can be something big and I'm convinced that I'm not the right person right now to make this happen. Lindsay has agreed to let me stay on as a member of the SOLO staff as SOLO Economics coordinator and I'll be happy to make myself available whenever anyone wants to bounce ideas off of me. It was fun during the brief time that this lasted and I hope the next executive director is successful in taking SOLO to the next level.

I think it is important every once and a while to watch the Friday prayer speeches delivered by Iran's Supreme Leader the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Not only is the rhetoric absurd, but the frantic "death to ....." chants from the crowd are chilling. This is the leader of a large country and this is the propaganda which is orchestrated by the government and broadcast constantly on Iranian TV. Here are a couple of recent Friday prayer speeches made by Iran's leader in Tehran.

83670771-61.wmv

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These last couple of weeks have been quite turbulent. The world is a volatile place at the moment. North Korea is purposely starting trouble with Japan, America and South Korea. Israel has been attacked by state sponsored terrorists on various fronts and of course the Europeans have their heads in the sand as usual.

At the start of this month I don’t have any major announcements to make.  However, we are a week or two away from making some very important announcements so I will probably be writing another update like this in the middle of July.  Overall site activity on SOLO has been strong and I am very pleased with the wide variety of discussions that are currently taking place all over the site.  

Some of you have mentioned in the last couple of weeks that you would like to see some pictures from my trip to China. Ross was nice enough to explain to me how to do it here on the forums. So here are a few of the photos I took.

Recently there was an obvious instance of plagiarism here on SOLO. Since we didn't have a specific policy in place regarding plagiarism we gave the user a stern warning as per our general guidelines and have allowed him to continue posting following a public apology. This apology is accepted by the SOLO staff. In this particular case it may have been a mistake. 

This will not be our policy moving forward. Anyone who the SOLO staff believes is guilty of plagiarism on the SOLO forums will be placed on moderation permanently. Property rights and honesty are critical elements of the Objectivist philosophy and acts of plagiarism run contrary to both.  I want to make it clear that plagiarism will not be tolerated here on SOLO.

- Jason

(Edited)

Ok guys -- I am off to Shanghai. I will be back in two weeks. Everyone behave while I'm gone.

- Jason

I’m a bit late with this month’s update, and due to end of the semester pressures I haven’t been as active in participating and managing SOLO as I would like.  Rest assured that this will be changing soon.   One thing I want to make everyone aware of is that I will be traveling to China on May 13, and I will be returning from the trip on May 28.  I will probably be speaking to some of you privately about keeping an eye on Lindsay while I’m gone If you have any SOLO related issues during this period please contact the webmasters and of course if there is anything serious you can contact Lindsay.

Due to the recent problems we’ve had with the company hosting the SOLO website we’ve had to disable several site functions including chat.  These problems are being worked on and we should have solutions soon. 

SOLOC 5

The first announcement that I want to make is that SOLOC 5 is on hold.   Lindsay and I have decided not to have the event on the dates of July 7-9, which was our original plan.   Our decision is based on the fact that we just don't have enough pieces of the puzzle in place to move ahead with it on such short notice.  Since Lindsay is flying over that weekend it is a shame that this didn’t work out, but as things stand now we believe that it is best to postpone the conference.  We tried our best to make this work but unfortunately we came up short. Lindsay will still be in Los Angeles during that weekend and a dinner is in the works for those who will also be in L.A. and would like to meet up with him and others.  Look for announcements about this during the next month.  I apologize to anyone who may have made plans around a July SOLO Conference.

I am very excited to announce that we have a new SOLO co-webmaster to replace the excellent Duncan Bayne who is stepping down next month to pursue a business venture.

This new webmaster is... Ross Elliot! Ross is an experienced programmer and a long time member of SOLO. I am extremely pleased that he has accepted my offer and I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements that he and Julian will make to the website during the next several months.

- Jason

It has been an interesting month watching things develop here on SOLO. As I initially noted, I was surprised when Lindsay tapped me to run things here, but I decided that the challenge he was offering is one that gives me an outlet to focus on things that are important to me. Objectivism is important to me, discussing ideas is important to me, and advocating freedom is important to me. The goal that Lindsay and I share is that we both want to develop the best Objectivist community on the Internet. While SOLO is certainly my personal favorite Objectivist community I recognize that a lot of work needs to be done before we can once again claim this title. My first goal in this process is to build a strong team of people to help me run different aspects SOLO. A lot of what I write in my initial monthly updates will be aimed at attracting people to help with different projects. This month I have three such projects that I want to mention.

Joe Maurone started a thread here a while back entitled “Ayn Rand and Black Hate Radio”. His post quoted a Philadelphia newspaper article which was stereotypically critical of the popular Star and Buc Wild radio show and its lead personality Star (Troi Torain). The popular media refers to Star as a shock jock. He is a morning FM radio talk show host based out of New York City with growing syndication on FM radio stations along the East Coast and in the South East. According to some web sources Star's show regularly beat Howard Stern's show among 18-35 year olds in New York during Stern's last couple of years on FM radio. Indeed, as Stern announced his move to satellite radio his former employer Clear Channel signed the Star and Buc Wild show to a lucrative contract.